Saturday, April 27, 2013

We have just launched our new website and are sending out
several batches of newsletters to update our readers, friends, and colleagues
about what has been going on over the last three months and what to expect from
the organisation moving forward.

Launch of New Beta Site

- Our ambition as a group has always been to break down the
barriers separating critical theoretical discourse and ‘the everyday practise
of social and individual life’. In attempting to achieve this we have engaged
with readers and have been working with several leading theories of alternative
media and web application, to develop new ways in which a range of media
projects can assist the organisation to bridge the theory-practise divide.

- One of the new features on our website includes the
organisation’s Global Voice project, which acts as centralised hub or platform
for the publication of non-profit research and reports.

The non-profit sector of society is notorious for its
ability to encourage ethical and critical practise across many different social
spheres. Drawing close links to some of the leading non-profit organisations,
locally and globally, Heathwood can directly assist and support the ongoing research
and practise of NPO’s in a number of fundamental ways: 1) to pull-in non-profit
media, report, commentary and critique from around the world and disseminate
that information in one centralised place; 2) to normatively engage with
independent non-profits so as to support their efforts on a grassroots level
with a highly engaged critical theory; 3) to listen to NPO’s across the globe
and the struggles and conflicts they report in order to further our own
understanding about social agency and structure; and 4) to integrate non-profit research and
data, which is heavily rooted in praxis, with Heathwood’s post-Frankfurt school
critical theory.

- Another exciting feature that we’ve been working on for
some time consists around the democratisation of media and how to make
Heathwood’s site more representative of a truly social, participatory media
centre.

To achieve this we have launched a new on-site comments
system that allows for real-time discussion between members of the public as
well as between readers/public and members of Heathwood. The aim of this new
feature is to encourage over time the development of a fertile digital ground
for discussion and the sharing of ideas.

Heathwood Network

We have also recently launched a new public forum called the
Heathwood Network, which will further support and encourage direct discussion
and engagement on a range of subjects. The forum can be accessed via the menu
on our new site.

- We’ve also been developing a series of critical theory
eGuides, ranging in subject from alternative education and epistemology to
alternative economics and ideology critique. No launch date has been set for
this programme.

-Lastly, we have been working on publishing a range of
infographics, interactive media, videos and datablogs to further support our
present research activity and public engagement campaigns.

New Members

We’ve welcomed a new member in past few months, Robert King,
whose work in systems will be a great addition to the organisation.

We’ve also had the opportunity to work with some great
people from around Europe and North America,
including Glenn Rikowski, Chris Cutrone, Richard Wolff, Peter Thompson, Daniel
Little, Geert Dhondt, Jeanne Willette, and others.

Moving Forward

There’s a lot planned for the upcoming year, including
several new book publications and further expansion to our digital media
projects.

If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss more
about Heathwood and where it is headed, please feel free to contact Robert C.
Smith at robert.smith@heathwoodpress.com

Alternatively, follow the organisation on twitter for daily
publication updates.

Thanks for your support.

Signed,

-The members of Heathwood

P.S. Feel free to forward this email to
friends, colleagues or whomever you may think appropriate.

Friday, April 26, 2013

The upcoming international seminar, titled Networked Labour is initially
supported by Networked Politics, Transform! Europe, Transnational Institute and
IGOPNET (Institut de Govern the Polítiques
Públiques) and it will be held in Amsterdam
between 7-9 May 2013.

Networked Politics have been an open project promoted by Transform! Italia,
Transnational Institute – New Politics and IGOP, and developed in co-operation
with Euromovements. To provide a space for
exchange between activists, researchers and activist-researchers there were
several seminars and debates held between 2006 and 2009. Most of the
encounters organised in parallel to the important movement-network gatherings
like European and World Social Forums and preparatory meetings that were linked
to the Forum processes. Several printed and on-line books, an on-line library,
and an on-line ’New Politics Dictionary’ were among the concrete outcomes
of the Network Politics debate; along side the founding of initiatives like the
annually held Free Culture Forums.

Our current work will be focusing on the changing worlds of labour and production,
and emerging new movements, political actors and their politics. We will mainly
be discussing these topics in relation to the accelerating developments in the ICTs.
Our hope is to create new synergies by bringing together many contributors and
observers of the recent changes, movements, protests, and mobilisations. We
hope this will enable us to increase our collective understanding of the new possibilities
emerging in front of us for a radical social change.

If you are interested in joining or following this open discussion and exchange
simply register to the networked labour weblog. We are looking forward to
explore the change together!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

On Saturday May 11th 2013, the Alliance of Radical
Booksellers (ARB) will be hosting a new radical bookfair, to take place in London’s Conway Hall. The
idea behind the fair is to create an event which showcases the depth and
breadth of radical publishing and bookselling in the UK.

The ARB is composed of booksellers with a range of subject
interests, including socialism, anarchism, peace/pacifism, sex & gender,
environment, anti-racism and progressive children’s writing: we intend for the
London Radical Bookfair to represent the full spectrum of radical publishing.

The event will culminate with the announcement of the winner
of the ARB’s book prize for the best political non-fiction, The Bread and Roses
Award for Radical Publishing. This year for the first time the Bread and Roses
award will be complimented by a new prize, The Little Rebels Award, to be given
for the best piece of fiction for readers aged 0-12 years.

As well as the bookfair in the main hall, we will be hosting
talks in the Brockway Room throughout the day, with short-listed authors from
the two book prizes presenting and discussing their work.

Entrance to the fair will be free for all. Food and drink
will be available.

There will be lots of information about the fair and book
awards to follow. An announcement for how to get involved in the fair, either
as a stall holder or as a volunteer, will be made soon.

Published March 2013
-----------------------------------
AN INTRODUCTION TO RADICAL THINKERS
A series of events at the ICA. See below.
-----------------------------------
“A compendium of left-wing philosophical and political thought, inoculating it
against the ‘great idea’ of philosophy-as-self-help. As a way of
transforming... formless disgust into educated critique, these books are a
fine, cheap and decidedly elegant starting point.” Owen Hatherley, http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/radical-thought/

“An extremely pleasant surprise: a new imprint from Verso called RADICAL
THINKERS, and a pile of white-covered paperbacks by the likes of Theodor
Adorno, Fredric Jameson, Guy Debord and Walter Benjamin. Not only do they have
nifty cover designs, they are, for Verso, ridiculously cheap.” Nick Lezard,
GUARDIAN http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/15/jean-baudrillard-transparency-of-evil
-----------------------------------
Since 1970 Verso has published the work of radical thinkers from Jacques Lacan
and Jean-Paul Sartre to Fredric Jameson, Walter Benjamin, Louis Althusser,
Judith Butler, and many more. The RADICAL THINKERS series of beautifully
designed and affordable editions of classic works of theory now exceeds 80
published titles.

The new SET 7 features essential texts in philosophy and cultural theory, from
selected writings of Ludwig Feuerbach to Simon Critchley’s seminal text
INFINITELY DEMANDING.

For information on each book or to buy a copy visit the link after each title
below. All of the titles are available together as a single shrink-wrapped set
at a reduced price. For more information visit: http://www.versobooks.com/series_collections/5-radical-thinkers
-----------------------------------
RADICAL THINKERS SET 7:

-----------------------------------
AN INTRODUCTION TO RADICAL THINKERS at the ICA, 9 April – 4 June

To launch this new set, Verso is proud to present AN INTRODUCTION TO RADICAL
THINKERS: a fortnightly series of events held at the Institute of Contemporary
Arts (ICA), London. They are designed to take theory outside of the academy to
create a public forum for the discussion of sophisticated ideas.

Led by engaging speakers to steer the potential of such debate far away from
the safe confines of ‘philosophy- as-self-help’ to more provocative and radical
horizons, the events aim to interrogate our existing understandings of all
areas of life, including: sexuality, economics, faith, politics and the
individual.

For the full details of these events, including booking information, visit the
link next to the title of each event below.

Friday, April 5, 2013

FOURTH GLOBAL
CONFERENCE FOR ACADEMIC RESEARCH ON ECONOMICS, BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Call For Papers

29-30 June 2013

4th Global Conference for Academic Research on

Economics, Business and Management

Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia

Paper Submission DEADLINE is fast approaching: 15th June 2013

The GCAR-EBM is the premier forum for the presentation of
new advances and research results in the fields of Economics, Business and
Management. The conference will bring together leading academic
scientists, researchers and scholars in the domain of interest from
around the world.

The conference gcar-emb is
supported by many universities and organizations and it has already formed a
large, multi-national and friendly community of colleagues who would love to
share ideas. gcar-emb invites you to submit
proposals for papers, panels, best practices, roundtables, tutorials,
posters/demonstrations and workshops.

All the accepted papers will be published in one of the
following JOURNALS:

-Journal of Management

-Journal of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics

-International Journal of Finance and Accounting

-American Journal of Economics

Also, the conference proceeding will be submitted to SCOPUS
for evaluation and indexing.

Publishing your papers will give your name, your research
and your university unparalleled presence on the internet for the global
scientific community to view your paper!

Papers are invited on any aspect of Economics, Business, and
management to be presented at gcar-emb . The event
provides authors with an outstanding opportunity for Economics, Business and
Management and presenting their work at a top quality published international
conference.

Papers in the following disciplines will be accepted and the
scope of the conference in general will cover but not limited to:

Accounting

Advertising Management

Business & Economics

Business Ethics

Business Intelligence

Business Information Systems

Business Law

Business Performance Management

Business Statistics

Change Management

Communications Management

Comparative Economic Systems

Consumer Behavior

Corporate Finance and Governance

Corporate Governance

Cost Management

Decision Sciences

Development Planning and Policy

Economic Development

Economic Methodology

Economic Policy

E-Bussiness

E- Marketing

Economic Systems

Entrepreneurship

Finance & Investment

Financial Economics

Global Business

Global Marketing

Growth: Aggregate Productivity

Household Behavior and Family Economics

Human Resources

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Information Systems

Information Technology Management

International Business

International Economics

International Finance

Labor Economics

Labor Relations & Human Resource Management

Law and Economics

Management Information Systems

Management Science

Market Structure and Pricing

Marketing Research and Strategy

Marketing Theory and Applications

Operations Research

Organizational Behavior & Theory

Organizational Communication

Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles

Product Management

Production and Organizations

Production/Operations Management

Public Administration and Small Business Entrepreneurship

Public Choice

Public Economics and Finance

Public Relations

Public Responsibility and Ethics

Regulatory Economics

Resource Management

Strategic Management

Strategic Management Policy

Stress Management

Supply Change Management

Systems Management

Systems Thinking

Taxes (and related areas of taxation)

Technological Change: Research and Development

Technology & Innovation

Time Management

Total Quality Management

Welfare Economics

You are invited to submit:

- Full paper of up to 6 pages (Letter) for oral
presentation, see template on website

Submissions must be unpublished work containing new and
interesting results that demonstrate current research in all areas of
economics, business and management.

The conference is jointly organised by Global Touch
Resources/Asia

Paper Submission: You can submit your papers using the
online submission form

Kindly promote gcar-ebm to all your
contacts in your university, country and worldwide. Kuala Lumpur is great place to explore. gcar-ebm is promising to be a
top quality international conference and we don't want anyone to miss a golden
opportunity to mix and network with world specialists and forge new friendships
and cooperation with colleagues from worldwide.

Dr Eva Gamarnikow,
Department of Policy Studies, University
of London, Institute of Education

Dr Stathis Kouvelakis,
Reader in Political Theory, King's College London

Who should attend:
Research active staff, readers and professors from all Schools and Institutes
at MiddlesexUniversity and other universities,
educationalists, research students, media and policy makers.

This event is free to attend, but participants must confirm
their attendance by email by 15th April. RSVP by 15th
April to Daniela Pantica on D.Pantica@mdx.ac.uk

About the Book

Social Change and Education in Greece: A Study in Class Struggle
Dynamics (2013, Palgrave

Macmillan,
New York). A New Book by Spyros Themelis, MiddlesexUniversity

The post-war orthodoxy postulated that education is both a
mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for economic growth. This
book takes a challenging and refreshingly novel approach to the way education
and social mobility are researched and theorised. The key message it delivers
goes against the dominant post-war orthodoxy, which has postulated that
education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for
economic growth in liberal capitalist countries. The conclusion the author
reaches flies in the face of mainstream political consensus that perceives
social mobility as panacea for the provision of occupational opportunities and
an instrument for the levelling of the playing field. Much of what lays beneath
social mobility, Spyros Themelis argues (apart from a great deal of sophisticated
number-crunching) is a celebration and acceptance of an unequal system of
allocation of opportunities.

This is one among very few studies that explore social
mobility and attendant processes with the use of both qualitative and
quantitative methods. The author views social mobility not merely as the
outcome of the movements of individuals from one income or occupational group
into another, detached from their societal, community and family context, as in
conventional mobility studies. Instead, he examines social mobility as a
complex process, where socio-economic (e.g. migration), cultural (e.g. marital
practices and community values) and political (e.g. political patronage)
forces, experiences, arrangements and strategies interact and interconnect in
impeding or enhancing individuals' and families' social mobility movements.

The book makes some contribution to the ongoing debate about
the economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009. It suggests that
the failure of education to promote equality of opportunities is symptomatic of
the failure of the wider system to prioritise fair and equitable arrangements.
If Greece's current
situation is to teach us a lesson, this is to urgently rethink about the whole
system, not only in Greece
but in the rest of the Western world too. The myth of education-based
meritocracy and unfettered social mobility has anaesthetised Western societies
to the multitude of social inequalities with which they are permeated. These might
be hard times, but all the more appropriate to urge us to think about positive
social change.

About Me

I am a Visiting Fellow in the College of Social Science at the University of Lincoln. I was previously a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Education at Anglia Ruskin University (2014-15). Prior to that, I was previously a Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at the University of Northampton. My interests are in Marxist educational theory, the future of the human and social time. The Rikowski family web site, The Flow of Ideas can be found at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk,
My Wordpress blog, 'All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski' is at: http://rikowski.wordpress.com,
Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski
@ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski